Wolverine, Japan, and Spider Psychos

Discussion time! Woot! We’ll be talking about The Wolverine (2013) with GIFs and chocolate and a little disagreement of opinions (which is rare, of course).

MIME: The Wolverine in fourteen words: I want to die! AAARGGHH! I want to live! AAARRGGHH! Ooo! Pretty girl! AAAGRRGHHH! I don’t mean to be cynical, but I like a bit more plot than that.

CAIT:

MIME: I am an X-Men fan. I loved the first Wolverine when apparently nobody else does. I adore Last Stand, which gets flack for being an epic let-down (I 100% disagree.) But seriously. They had plot and emotional arcs for the characters. The Wolverine? I’m sorry, but no.

CAIT: Wow, somebody put their umbrellas up to stop rain-cloud up there from drenching us. It was awesome! I loved it! It’s Marvel! Therefore it’s awesome! Everything Marvel is awesome! (Except for, maybe, Fantastic Four…okay, don’t kill me. But how can Chris Evans be Captain America AND The Human Torch in the same fandom??!)

MIME: The logo at the beginning of a film is no reason to give a movie 5 stars.

CAIT: Yes, it is.

MIME: To say it plainly, the plot consists of gory fight to martial arts fight, chopping up ninjas with a roadworks machine, stabbing, shooting, and Logan operating on himself. Because he has a little spider-psycho inside him.CAIT: Where did that little spider-psycho come from, anyway? I don’t like spiders. It’s gross.

MIME: I’m not a stickler opposed to all violence, as I’ve said, I love X-men and Avengers and all that. But I just don’t like movies that are one big fight scene. I guess that’s my problem with it.

CAIT: You keep saying “I love X-Men.” I don’t think that means what you think it means. SO. Now, dear blogglings, you need to forget Mime’s opinion (it’s wrong) and hear mine (it’s right). The Wolverine isn’t one big fight scene. Ha! No way. It’s maybe, well, 88% fight scenes. That’s not ALL. So there. The rest? Well, there’s a lot of Japanese speaking. And wounded looks. And betrayal. And ninja Hawkeyes. Oh! And there was Yukio!

MIME: Yes, Yukio was cool. A bit sadistic by the end, but very cool. She did the last fight scene (actually, the last four or five, they all happen so rapidly) in a stripy jumper and a skirt. Awesome.

Yukio

CAIT: I also liked Mariko! She was a bit weak…but, she was nice. Even though I had no idea what her name was until the end. Come on! Logan said her name with an Aussie accent. Everyone else said it with a Japanese accent. I don’t know. I thought her name was Michael.

Logan and whatever-her-name-is

MIME: The basic emotional arc was this: Logan is done living forever. He’s shellshocked from the Last Stand, he misses Jean (who he killed), and he’s done. So now he wants to die. But it’s very hard to kill a admantanium dude, and so he basically needs a point to life, which he doesn’t have. The whole movie is Logan trying to find either mortality or a point to life. He doesn’t find either.

CAIT:

He did! He found both! So there! It was amazing! It was very emotional (if you have emotions, that is, which Vulcan-Mime maybe does not). It was like Iron Man 3. We got to see Logan without his immortality. And it was sad! And I cried. Well, I didn’t really cry. I was eating chocolate, so I was kind of distracted. But it was very emotional.

MIME: Oh, and the finale featured a random Iron Man suit.CAIT: If the iron monster in Thor married and Iron Man suit they would have this:

See?

From Thor

From Iron Man

Marvel loves their metal monsters.

MIME: In the end, I wish I’d loved it. I wanted to. But I just didn’t. Three stars from me. And many tears of bitter sorrow.CAIT: Tears? You’re showing emotion!

MIME: I am expressing multiple emotions simultaneously. To which are you referring?CAIT: Never mind, Spocky. So! It’ll be a 5-stars from me! And lots Marvel fangirling! And I can’t wait for Days of Future Past!!

MIME: Me too. Katniss is in it.

CAIT: And Mr. Tumnus! And Gandalf! It’s the ultimate fandom mash-up!

MIME: Here is a GIF of our overall opinions of The Wolverine:

You can guess which is Cait and which is Mime.

Cait and Mime were looking through their old discussions and realising…they disagree a lot. But! They still love each other (mostly). And Cait is sure Mime will come to the right opinions eventually. Since it’s the new year, they’re not making resolutions. They intend to eat just as much chocolate.

Comments

Last year (night, heh) I saw the trailer and the first thing I said was, "Did Hawkeye turn Japanese?" Last I checked he didn't, but… Hey! I know nothing! I haven't seen it, but personally, I loved all of the X-Men movies with a firm exception of the first one. I don't know why, but it's not my favorite… My friends hate Last Stand, I love it. It was a great ending to the series. Plus if you watch through the credits, all the way to the end, there's an extra scene – and Xavier's alive!/cheersBut yeah. I love the X-Men movies and think it's ironic you posted on The Wolverine today.Wait… Did you say spider?/freaks outTabby (http://tabbys-corner.blogspot.com/)

I adore Last Stand! Yeah, nasty, electric, spidery gross thingies. Blagh. The end credit scene made me freak out, too. Not because Xavier's alive (he was alive in the Last Stand end credits scene.) Magneto got his powers back!!! (I shouldn't be happy about that, right?)

Ooh I saw this on Twitter and had to jump in… I was not a big fan of this one. 🙁 My feelings pre- movie were pretty much "they're doing the Japan story- yes!". Then afterward I was like "Oh, that was disappointing". I was really disappointed by the end- I thought we were going to get the Silver Samurai from the comics and we got that old dude in the armor. That's always my problem though- I always want them to stick closer to the original story than they do.Anyway nice post!

I'm with Cait on this. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOVE this movie! I'm a total X-Men Fangirl (I've read the comics since….Well….Since I could read)I did find Mariko a little weak but she's kinda supposed to be (even in the comics/anime (the anime is really good btw 😉 ) and I LOVED Yukio. I won't even get started on her.Okay what is it with me and SUPER long comments?? XDI'll say these last two things then i'm done.1. They NEED NEED NEEEED to have X-23 in one of the movies (wether she gets her own (which i would LOVE) or if she shows up in another Wolverine movie OR an X-Men movie. I don't care as long as she shows up in a movie and her character is awesome 😉 )2. (last thing) I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR DAYS OF FUTER PAST I CANNOT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT *insert random fangirl gibberish here*okay. I'm done now XD